Steinhagen shot former Cub to relieve pressure in mind

“The Natural” stalker dies at 83

Published: Friday, March 15, 2013 11:42 p.m. CST

BY BOB GOLDSBOROUGH
Chicago Tribune

The Chicago woman whose near-fatal 1949 shooting of former Cubs first baseman Eddie Waitkus inspired the book and movie "The Natural" died with the same anonymity with which she lived for more than half a century.

The 19-year-old's crime, which put a spotlight on stalking crimes, nearly killed Waitkus, 29, and temporarily sidetracked his career. The incident also helped to draw attention to "baseball Annies" – young, hero-worshipping groupies who would pursue major league ballplayers, often relentlessly.

However, from the time that Ruth Ann Steinhagen left Kankakee State Hospital in 1952 after undergoing nearly 3 years of psychiatric treatment, she disappeared into near obscurity – so much so that one of her final next-door neighbors said he lived there for more than 15 years before learning her history.

Steinhagen, who never spoke publicly about the Waitkus incident after her release from the hospital, spent much of her final 42 years living in a modest house on the Northwest Side with her parents and sister.

She died Dec. 29 at Swedish Covenant Hospital of a subdural hematoma caused by an accidental fall in her longtime home, a Cook County medical examiner spokeswoman said. She was 83.

Her death had gone unreported and was only discovered when the Chicago Tribune was searching death records for another story.

"She was never social," next-door neighbor Chris Gentner said. "I talked to her and we knew each other, but she really wasn't the type of person who would sit down and talk to you."

Gentner said it was only recently that he learned of Steinhagen's notorious past.

"I was amazed. I then looked her up and saw all that stuff. Interestingly, where I grew up in New York was real close to where they made parts of 'The Natural.'"

Born Ruth Catherine Steinhagen in Cicero on Dec. 23, 1929, Steinhagen was the daughter of die-setter Walter Steinhagen and his homemaker wife, Edith, both of whom had emigrated from Berlin in their early 20s, according to Chicago author John Theodore's 2002 Waitkus biography, "Baseball's Natural: The Story of Eddie Waitkus."

She spent 2 years at Waller High School before earning a diploma from Jones Commercial High School, now Jones College Prep.

At some point in her teens, Steinhagen, who had begun using the middle name Ann, became obsessed with Waitkus, who then was a first baseman for the Cubs. After the Cubs traded Waitkus to the Phillies before the 1949 season, Steinhagen's obsession with him intensified.

It all came to a head June 14, 1949, when the Phillies were in town to play the Cubs. Steinhagen, then a typist for the Continental Casualty insurance company in the Loop, attended the game that day.

After the game, she sent Waitkus an unsigned note summoning him to a 12th-floor room in the now-demolished Edgewater Beach Hotel, where the Phillies were staying. When Waitkus arrived at 11:30 p.m., Steinhagen told Waitkus from behind the door, "I have a surprise for you," and then used a .22-caliber rifle that she had purchased at a pawnshop to shoot him just below the heart.

After shooting Waitkus, Steinhagen called the hotel operator and soon was taken into custody as he was rushed to Illinois Masonic Hospital. The bullet had torn through his right lung and lodged in back muscles near his spine, and he underwent two blood transfusions while in critical condition.

After about 2weeks, Waitkus was transferred to Billings Memorial Hospital at the University of Chicago. He had six operations before doctors finally removed the bullet.

Waitkus made an impressive recovery and helped the Whiz Kid Phillies to the National League pennant in 1950. He was a regular for two more seasons and played through 1955, though he suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder and retired from baseball at 35. He died in 1972.

After the shooting, Steinhagen told authorities that she wasn't sorry and that she "just had to shoot somebody."

"Only in that way could I relieve the nervous tension I've been under the last 2 years," she was reported to have told the Cook County state's attorney. "The shooting has relieved that tension."